The Moral Case For American Goodness Endures

Wilfred Reilly makes an excellent case in his article. I, for one, am persuaded of the greatness of American accomplishments and the magnitude of American progress. The only problem is that all of this has little to do with the article’s title and aim of showing “the moral goodness” of America. Judged according to moral principles rather than geopolitical or economic ones, the U.S., I would argue, is in fact both better and worse than Reilly’s article suggests.

In my high school valedictory address at Vintage High in Napa, California, I suggested to my fellow graduates that “success” in life does not consist in career accomplishments or moneymaking. Succeeding as a human being involves, rather, practicing moral virtues like kindness, love, and fairness. One might argue that America’s existence as an independent nation  can be traced to our having a similar standard for national success. Writing in 1825 about “the object [i.e., the goal] of the Declaration of Independence,” Thomas Jefferson didn’t invoke Machiavelli or Mandeville on wealth and power. He didn’t cite statistics on GDP growth or list milestones of American geopolitical progress since 1776. Instead, he cited “the elementary books of public right, as Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, Sidney, etc.”

Read Full Article »